Those irritating phrases that drive you crazy

Those Irritating Words or Phrases!Do you have a colleague who uses the same word or phrase constantly, driving you crazy? For example, "you know", "so", "like" or "um"?  Often the person doesn't even realize he is saying these things.
What can you do about this? First, if it is appropriate for you to say this (obviously not to your boss!), tell the person you have noticed he says (whatever the word or phrase is) very frequently, and you wondered if he has noticed this. Tell him it is hard for you to listen to (or whatever the effect is on the customers and colleagues) and could he try to either use another phrase there or just pause and not say anything when he is about to say this.
Sometimes professional coaching by an outsider makes a difference, if the person has trouble stopping on his own. A qualified speech coach can use special techniques to help the person reduce or eliminate his use of the particular word or phrase.
Business Speech Improvement provides intensive coaching in diction, accent modification and other verbal skills, including reducing those irritating phrases!


Older posts on many aspects of verbal communication can be found here,  at this site.